Book excerpt: Increasingly popular in Japan, this form of practice focuses on abdominal diagnostic features that reflect disturbances in the internal pathways of the channels and collaterals and the internal qi flow of the entire body. Here Kobayashi (acupuncture, Kanto Acupuncture College), a leading practitioner and academic, draws from his decades of study of classical writings on the vital energy system to develop a unique method of root treatment, condensing those fragments of classical information into their intrinsic core. He writes for clinicians and students as he describes the theory behind treatment, the concept of qi in acupuncture core therapy, disease and the practice's three etiologies, evaluation of the patient, and fundamental and supplemental treatment. He provides comprehensive coverage of clinical applications, including the locations of the manifestations of disease (including psychiatric disease and pediatric conditions), and offers eight impressive case studies and a range of methodology in a series of appendices.